Snooping may not be legal

The intelligence service, at their third time of asking get their activities legalised, but the EU's Court rules that mass surveillance remains illegal. Also access to retained data must be supervised by an independent review, and can only be requested in pursuit of a serious crime.

The CJEU was asked by the UK High Court for guidance on the legality of the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act. Its judgement was reported by the Independent and the Guardian

The so-called snooper’s charter is set to face a series of new legal challenges after the EU’s highest court ruled government’s “general and indiscriminate retention” of emails is illegal. Only targeted information gathering is justified, the European Court of Justice said, boosting the case against the sweeping collection of emails, text messages and internet data.

The Open Rights Group comments, a detailed look at the ruling and concludes that Mass surveillance is illegal, access to retained data must be supervised by an independent review, and access to retained data can only be requested in pursuit of a serious crime.

Labour’s Diane Abbott has called for a major rethink on Theresa May’s snooping laws, which the European Court has indicated are unlawful. Ms Abbott slammed the Conservative legislation as a "serious erosion of our rights and liberties" and called for new exemptions.